Principle of Information and

Computer Security
Lecture 5
 Data Encryption

• Data encryption translates data into another form, or code.

• Encryption has two types: Symmetric encryption and Asymmetric

encryption
Symmetric Encryption
• Also referred to as conventional encryption or signal key encryption.

• Was the only type of encryption in user before development of public-key

encryption.

• Symmetric encryption is a type of encryption where only one key (a secret key) is
used to both encrypt and decrypt electronic data. The entities communicating via
symmetric encryption must exchange the key so that it can be used in the
decryption process.

• Remains by far the most widely used of the two types of encryption.
Basic Terminology
• Plaintext: the original message
• Ciphertext: the coded message
• Encryption: process of converting from plaintext to ciphertext.
• Decryption: restoring the plaintext from the ciphertext.
• Cryptography: study of encryption.
• Cryptanalysis: techniques used for deciphering a massage without knowledge of
the enciphering details.
• Cryptosystem: An implementation of cryptographic techniques and their
accompanying infrastructure to provide information security services. A
cryptosystem is also referred to as a cipher system.
Simplified Model of Symmetric Encryption
A symmetric scheme has five ingredients:
1. Plaintext
2. Encryption algorithm: is the method used to transform data into ciphertext. It
performs various substitutions and transformations on the plaintext. Its inputs
are the plaintext and the secret key
3. Secret key: is a piece of information that is used to decrypt and encrypt messages
4. Ciphertext : is a random unintelligible stream of data.
For a same message, will two different keys produce two different ciphertexts?
5. Decryption algorithm: it the encryption algorithm run in reverse. Its inputs are
the ciphertext and the secret key
Model of Symmetric Cryptosystem
General Approaches to Attacking a Conventional
Encryption
• Cryptanalysis: It relies on
❑ the nature of the algorithm plus some knowledge of the general
characteristics of the plaintext
❑ or some sample plaintext-ciphertext pairs
It tries to deduce a specific plaintext or to deduce the key being used.

• Brute-Force: the attacker tries every possible key on a piece of

ciphertext until a intelligible plaintext is obtained. On average, half of
all possible keys must be tried to achieve success.
Encryption Scheme Security
For encryption to be of high quality and provide great information security, it must
achieve:

• The cost of breaking the cipher exceeds the value of the encrypted information

• The time required to brake the cipher exceeds the useful lifetime of the
information
All encryption algorithm are based on two general principles:

• Substitution: in which the letters of plaintext are replaced by other

letters, numbers or symbols.

• Transposition: in which letter of plaintext are rearranged.

Some algorithms use the two principles together in order to make the
ciphertext more complex and difficult to decrypt by the attackers.
Examples of encryption methods

1. Caesar Cipher:
• use substitution cipher
• Involves replacing each letter of the alphabet with the letter standing three
places further down the alphabet.
• Ex: Plain = meet me after the toga party
• Cipher= PHHW PH DIWHU WKH WRJD SDUWB
 Brute-Force
Cryptanalysis
of Caesar
Cipher
2. Monoalphabetic Ciphers

Randomly replaces message characters with other characters to implement

encryption
EX:
UZQSOVUOHXMOPVGPOZPEVSGZWSZOPFPESXUDBMETSXAIZ
VUEPHZHMDZSHZOWSFPAPPDTSVPQUZWYMXUZUHSX
EPYEPOPDZSZUFPOMBZWPFUPZHMDJUDTMOHMQ

To analyze this ciphertext:

As a first step, the relative frequency of the letters can be determined and compared
to a standard frequency distribution for English
a standard frequency distribution for English
➢As a second step, two-letter combinations, known as diagrams.
Most common diagram is “th”
Form last example, ZW appears three times. So we can assume that Z is t and W is h

➢As a third step, three-letter combination, known as trigrams

Most frequent is :the”
Form last example, we notice that ZWP appears in the ciphertext. So we assume that
p is e.

And so on.
We replace each Z with t and each W with h and each P with e
Stream Cipher and Block Cipher
• Stream cipher encrypts a digital stream one bit or one byte at a time

• In block cipher, a block of plaintext is translated as a whole and used

to produce a ciphertext block of equal length.
• Typically a block size of 64 or 128 bits is used.